The Lord is Our Shepherd

The Ministry Introduction and the Gospel Reading

Welcome to the teaching ministry of Kungsvinger Lutheran Church. Kungsvinger is a beacon for the gospel of Jesus Christ and is located on the plains of northwestern Minnesota. We proclaim Christ and Him crucified for our sins and salvation by grace through faith alone.

And now here's a message from Pastor Chris Roseberg.

Holy Gospel according to St. Mark the 6th chapter. The apostles returned to Jesus and told him all that they had done and taught and he said to them, come away by yourselves to a desolate place and rest a while for many were coming and going and they had no leisure even to eat and they went away in the boat to a desolate place by themselves.

Now many saw them going and recognized them and they ran there on foot from all the towns and got there ahead of them and when he went ashore he saw a great crowd and he had compassion on them because they were like sheep without a shepherd and he began to teach them many things and when it grew late his disciples came to him and said this is a desolate place the hour is now late send them away to go into the surrounding countryside and villages and buy themselves something to eat but he answered them you give them something to eat and they said to him shall we go and buy 200 denarii worth of bread and give it to them to eat and he said to them how many loaves do you have go and see.

And when they found out they said five and two fish. Then he commanded them all to sit down in groups on the green grass so they sat down in groups by hundreds and by fifties and taking the five loaves and the two fish he looked up to heaven and said a blessing broke the loaves and gave them to the disciples to set before the people and he divided the two fish among them all and they all ate and they were satisfied and they took up 12 baskets full of broken pieces and of the fish and those who ate the loaves were 5 ,000 men.

This is the gospel of the Lord. In the name of Jesus woe to the shepherds who destroy and scatter the sheep of my pastor declares the Lord. Now there's an actual declaration from the Lord and boy throughout Christian history this is one that people who have been pastors and church leaders have not paid attention to.

Woe to the Shepherds Who Scatter the Sheep

The history of abuse from the pulpit from pastors throughout the Christian church in both Rome and in Protestant churches is well, terrible. And it's real. I always like to point out that back in the Middle Ages the church, the church, they tortured heretics alas we here at Kongsvinger we're just not strong enough for that.

You'll note that down in the basement we do not have a torture chamber and I do not try to compel you by saying now if you do not believe that Jesus has risen from the dead then we are going to.

Well, make you pay.

Nobody does this. But the thing is that throughout Christian history there have been shepherds who have not only tortured people in the name of Christ which is an authority Christ has not given to the church they've murdered people, martyred them, taken away their Bibles and in our day and age we have a whole host of people out there who claim to be God's anointed, the super special, super apostle types.

And what do they say? Well if you send in your thousand dollar seed offering God himself is going to multiply that he's going to give you divine health, he's going to give you divine wealth and you're going to be the head and not the tail and you'll have your best life now.

So like a fool you write the check for a thousand dollars or you clear out your savings account, make it payable to apostle, pastor, anointed so and so and you wait and you wait and you wait. And then he preaches a sermon, don't worry your breakthrough is on the horizon, it's just around the corner and of course your breakthrough never comes.

And then you go to the pastor and you say you know I'm beginning to think that you're twisting God's word because I wrote you that thousand dollar seed offering and I'm still driving a Pinto. And he says touch not God's anointed.

Or worse a pacer does anyone remember those things? I hear that those things are going pretty, are very expensive now on the resale market, much more than when they were available as new cars. But anyway, so what do they end up doing?

Well people's faith gets destroyed, people's money is fleeced, lives are shattered and people end up walking away from Christianity and saying it's all a bogus scam. But here's the thing every pastor needs to pay close attention to the fact that we suffer a stricter judgment and God has declared a woe and when God says woe you better step back and go woe because the woe is there for a reason.

Woe to the shepherds who destroy and scatter the sheep of my pastor declares the Lord. You see God is nothing like that. God cares for people. He doesn't fleece His flock. He doesn't torture them if they're struggling and if they're sick or poverty stricken He shows mercy, grace, kindness and love.

In fact Jesus who was the head became the tail in the incarnation. The highest went to the lowest. And so keep that in mind as we consider our gospel text today because there's something kind of amazing going on.

You'll note that in our gospel text we have that great miracle, the feeding of the 5 ,000 and aside from the resurrection of Christ this is the only miracle that appears in all four gospels. And one of the things I love is that each of the gospel writers has a slightly different emphasis that he puts on this particular miracle.

Now in order to get the whole gist of it I would like you to consider if you would the Exodus for a second. It seems like a strange place to go but it's important that when we go into the mall we look at that kiosk that says you are here so that we can kind of figure out what's going on.

So you'll note the book of Exodus tells the story of the people of Israel, the people of God, enslaved to a tyrannical false god king who likes wearing snake hats. That's really what the Pharaoh's hat is all about.

It's a cobra. In fact you can kind of think of Pharaoh as like the original Cobra Kai guy. Strike first, strike hard, no mercy. That's kind of his motive. And the Pharaohs of ancient Egypt they were considered like Osiris on earth.

And so that's one of the big things going on here. So no, where's the snake hat big Cobra Kai guy? He's a stand in for the devil. Children of God are under slavery and are just withering under the heat and the tasks and the labor.

And God remembers his promises to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob and he sends them a deliverer, Moses. And Moses he comes and he says let my people go. We know how the story goes. There's ten plagues all the gods of Egypt get judged and they come up wanting.

Yahweh prevails and then with the death of the Passover lambs instead of the firstborn the children of Israel are finally set free from slavery and then God marches them out into the wilderness, baptizes them in the Red Sea.

That's what that was all about. And then they find themselves on the other side of the Red Sea somewhere in the Saudi Arabian desert. And well they're hungry. And so we have this interesting picture. In chapter 13 of Exodus it says the Lord Yahweh went before them by day and a pillar of cloud to lead them along the way.

By night and a pillar of fire to give them light that they might travel by day and by night. The pillar of cloud by day, the pillar of fire by night did not depart from before the people. If you would here's God leading out his sheep.

He's going to lead them to greener pastures. The land flowing with milk and honey. So that's kind of the picture. And then of course they get hungry and it says they set out from Alem and all the congregation of the people of Israel came to the wilderness of Sin which is between Alem and Sinai on the 15th day of the second month they had departed from the land of Egypt.

And then the whole congregation of the people of Israel grumbled against Moses and Aaron in the wilderness. And the people of Israel said to them oh would that we had died by the hand of Yahweh in the land of Egypt when we sat by the meat pots and ate bread to the full for you have brought us out into this wilderness to kill this whole assembly with hunger.

And already you've got to kind of wonder has their brain been cooked a little too much in the Saudi sun here because I don't recall the children of Israel in slavery sitting in chaise lounges dipping their hands leisurely into meat pots and of course the Egyptian slave master saying is there anything else I can get you?

Could I top off your Mai Tai? Nothing like that. So already things are a little squirrely in their remembrance of things and they're grumbling against God. Well I mean maybe hunger and sun do that to you.

So then Yahweh said to Moses behold I'm about to rain bread from heaven for you. And the people shall go out and gather a day's portion every day that I might test them whether they will walk in my law or not.

On the sixth day when they prepare what they bring in it will be twice as much as they gather daily. So Moses and Aaron said to the people of Israel at evening you shall know that it was Yahweh who brought you out of the land of Egypt and in the morning you shall see the glory of Yahweh because he has heard your grumbling against Yahweh for what are we that you grumble against us?

So Moses said when Yahweh gives you in the evening meat to eat and in the morning bread to the full because Yahweh has heard your grumbling that you grumble against him what are we? Your grumbling is not against us but against Yahweh.

And then Moses said to Aaron say to the whole congregation of the people of Israel come near before Yahweh for he has heard your grumbling. And as soon as Aaron spoke to the whole congregation of the people of Israel they looked toward the wilderness and behold the glory of Yahweh appeared in the cloud.

And Yahweh said to Moses I have heard the grumbling of the people of Israel say to them at twilight you shall eat meat and in the morning you shall be filled with bread and then you shall know that I am Yahweh your God.

And you'll note this then begins a miracle that lasts forty years. Every day except for on Saturday the children of Israel would wake up and on the desert floor there would be manna. What is it? That's what manna means.

It's kind of a big question. What is it? And the Lord fed them that way. Gave them miraculous bread from heaven. But Jesus himself makes it clear in John 6 that that bread from heaven that the children of Israel ate was pointing to him and that he is the true bread that has come down from heaven.

And so you'll note Israelites know this miracle. Whole bunch of Jews in the middle of nowhere. Big miracle regarding food. Ah Yahweh is the one who is feeding them. And that's the backdrop of our gospel text today.

The Feeding of the Five Thousand as a New Exodus

So in Mark 6 verse 30 the apostles after returning to Jesus. Jesus had sent them out on a training mission. He said to them come away by yourselves to a desolate place and rest a while. For many were coming and going that they had no leisure even to eat.

At this point Jesus' ministry is really kind of taken off. And well Jesus and his twelve disciples are stretched thin. So they went away in a boat to a desolate place by themselves. And many saw them going and recognized them.

And they ran there on foot from all the towns and got there ahead of them. And when he went ashore he saw a great crowd. And the text says he had compassion on them. I love the way the Greek talks about it.

His splagnizami. His guts were wrenched for these people. And there's the big difference. Jude the half brother of Jesus warns us that in the last days there would be shepherds who feed only themselves.

Over and again you can tell when somebody is a true minister of Christ by whether everything is about them and everybody's supposed to make their dream, their vision, their legacy the thing that they're supposed to get behind.

Or if they truly have compassion on Christ's sheep and care for even the weakest among us. You'll note that Friedrich Nietzsche in his book on the Antichrist which gives you the real values of the world basically says that it's a vice.

It's an absolute vice for human beings to care for those who are weak, who are poor, who are destitute. Instead he points to nature and says we need to be more like wolves where we, well, tear apart the weak.

And so Nietzsche in his, well, epic work really laying out the values of the Antichrist in the world despises Christianity and by extension despises Christ. Because you'll note when you come to Christ filled with the muck of sin or you are destitute financially or you are struggling because your body is failing.

Jesus doesn't say, well, see to it yourself. You should have taken care of that earlier. You know, after all, you know, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. Everything that's happening to you is your own fault.

And you should have been tithing the whole time too. You know, what were you thinking? Jesus isn't like that at all. Seeing this crowd of people in great need. Great need because they're spiritually lost.

They're physically broken. They're, well, under the boot of Rome and all of them, the whole lot of them, are pretty far down in the financial status. What does Christ have? Compassion. He has absolute compassion on them because they were like sheep without a shepherd.

And he began to teach them many things. The need is great so Jesus rolls up his sleeves and says, boys, even though we're all exhausted and tired, it's time to get back to work. And so he goes about first tending to their souls, preaching and teaching to them the very words of God because that is who Jesus is.

And so when it grew late, oh yeah, how did that prophecy go? In the evening you'll eat meat and you'll know that I am Yahweh. Yeah, that's kind of what's going on here. So the day is far spent. His disciples come to him and said, this is a desolate place.

The hour is now late. Send them away to go into the surrounding countryside and villages to buy themselves something to eat. This is one of those ministry moments where you just have to crack up. And so Jesus looks at them and says, you give them something to eat.

Now, I like Mark's account because it gives us a hint that maybe the disciples were a little lippy back to Jesus because they just ask him the question kind of straight up. Alright, shall we go and buy 200 denarii worth of bread and give it to them to eat?

Knowing full well 200 denarii worth of bread wouldn't go very far at all. So Jesus said to them, how many loaves do you have? Go and see. So when they had found out, they said five and two fish. So he commanded them to all sit down in groups on the green grass.

Oh wait, sheep without a shepherd had them sit down in groups on the green grass. Well, that reminds me of that really famous psalm that we all know. We all learned it in the King James too, which is interesting.

How's the psalm go? The Lord is my shepherd. I shall not want. He makes me to lie down in green pastures and he leads me beside the still waters. Ah, I see what's going on here. Here Jesus is this desolate place.

He's having his sheep without a shepherd. Now he's tending to them. He's fed their souls. He's going to feed their bodies. So he has everybody sit down, makes them lie down in the green pasture. Oh, it's a beautiful picture.

And so the psalm goes on. He leads me beside the still waters. Oh, I think of baptism here. He restores my soul. He leads me in paths of righteousness for his name's sake. Have you ever considered as you read Psalm 23, one that we're all very familiar with, just the absolute patience, kindness, and tenderness of this Lord who is our shepherd.

And indeed he is. It's exemplified in what we see in our gospel text regarding Christ. He restores my soul. He leads me in paths of righteousness for his own name's sake. And even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil.

And we all have a date with that shadow of death thingy. There's a time coming. You don't know if it's tomorrow, next week, five years, or twenty, thirty years from now. Each and every one of us, as long as Christ tarries, we know that we're going to have to journey through the darkest part.

And that's the valley of the shadow of death. But don't worry. It's the valley of the shadow of death. It's not the valley of death itself. The reason why death is but a shadow for us Christians is due to the fact that Christ, who bore our sin on the cross, bodily rose from the grave.

He conquered death on the third day after he was crucified under Pontius Pilate. Death for us is just a mere shadow. Something that we need not fear. So as anxiety-causing as the thought may be, don't worry.

We will fear no evil because Christ is with us. His rod and his staff, they comfort us. He's even prepared a table before us in the presence of our enemies. Ah, that's what we'll be experiencing today.

Note, baptism, the Lord's Supper, they're all present here. You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies, and you anoint my head with oil and my cup overflows. Because of this surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and then I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.

See the difference? Shepherds who care only for themselves compared to, well, our Lord, who is our shepherd, who deeply cares for us and meets all of the real needs that we have and doesn't give us the vain things that we want because of his great love for us.

So Christ has all these people sit down in the green grass and it says then that they sat down in groups by hundreds and by fifties and taking the five loaves and the two fish he looked up to heaven and said a blessing, broke the loaves, gave them to the disciples and set them before the people.

He divided the two fish among them all and they all ate and they were satisfied. And this isn't a metaphor. You know, all those wingnuts out there who claim that miracles don't take place. This actually took place.

It's written by eyewitnesses. Christ really multiplied these loaves and fishes and fed these Jews in the middle of the wilderness and they knew exactly who he was after that. When you read John's account in John 6, they were ready to make Jesus king by force.

So they took up twelve baskets full of broken pieces and those who ate the fish, those were five thousand men. So the question then is what does it mean? Because clearly this miracle shows us who Jesus is.

At twilight you will eat meat and you'll know that I am Yahweh. Well that's exactly who Jesus is. But you're going to note then this is a story that harkens to the Exodus. Isn't the Exodus all about, you know, people who are genetic descendants of Abraham, people who are Hebrews?

Ah, this is where we must pay close attention to our epistle text because Christ has so wonderfully taken us Gentiles and he's joined us with his big flock. In fact that's kind of the point of our epistle text.

Gentiles Brought Near in Christ

In Ephesians 2 .11 it says, remember that once, at one time, you Gentiles, you Norwegians, you Polish people, you Swedes, you Celts, wherever you're from, if Asia, South Africa, it doesn't matter, wherever you're from, we were all part of that group, the Gentiles in the flesh, called the uncircumcision by those who had received the circumcision, the Jews.

That is the circumcision that is made with hands. Remember that you, you and I, all of us, we were at that time, we were separated from Christ. And indeed that's how we were born, dead in trespasses and sins.

We were alienated from the common wealth of Israel. As a result of that we were strangers to the covenants of promise. And listen to the verdict, having no hope and without God in the world. To not have Christ is to have no hope.

To not have Christ is to not have God. That's how each of us came into this world. But Paul goes on, but now in Christ, you who were once far off, you have been brought near by the blood of Christ. Your good shepherd has brought you into the common wealth of Israel.

He's made you familiar with the covenants of promise. He has given you a hope and He is your God. He himself is our peace who has made us both, Jews and Gentiles, one. That's why in Christ there is neither Jew nor Greek, there is slave nor free.

We are all one in Him and by His blood He has broken down in His flesh the dividing wall of hostility. No more is there a barrier that says Gentiles enter here upon pain of death. It's what the old signs said in the old temple.

Instead Christ has torn down the wall of hostility. How did He do it? Well, by abolishing the law of commandments expressed in ordinances so that He might create in Himself one new man in place of the two and so making peace.

And so that He might reconcile us both, Jews and Gentiles to God in one body through the cross thereby killing the hostility. He came and He preached peace to you who were far off and peace to those who were near.

I love the fact that Scripture repeats this concept that God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world but that the world might be saved through Him. Now there is a second coming of Christ when He comes in glory to judge the living and the dead.

But now the message of the gospel goes out that we who were far off, we who were steeped in sin, we who were guilty, we who were hostile to God, we who participated in the rebellion of the devil, Christ comes and He preaches peace to us and offers us pardon, peace, hope, forgiveness and reconciliation with the God with whom we have sinned against.

How? By bearing in His own body our sins and bleeding and dying for us on the cross. What an amazing selfless, kind, merciful, gracious shepherd that we have in Christ. Through Him we both have access in one spirit to the Father.

So then you are no longer strangers, you are no longer aliens. You all are now fellow citizens with the saints and you are now members of the household of God. You are built on the foundation of the apostles and the prophets and this is the only place where you can hear this message rightly.

You can only hear it in the scriptures. Apostles and prophets is referring to our Bibles. Christ Jesus Himself is the cornerstone. He is the one to whom the prophets pointed to and the apostles preached about.

In whom the whole structure then is now being joined together and is now growing into a holy temple in the Lord. In Him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit. You'll note that with Christ because He's come to bring peace, we who are in Him are not condemned, we are forgiven.

We are not cast out, we are cared for. We are not shown the door, we are shown mercy. We are not treated with impatience. Instead we hear and should be hearing and seeing exemplified in those who preach to us that God is slow to anger, abounding in steadfast love, pardoning iniquity and forgiving trespasses and sins.

That's exactly what Jesus is like and those who are His shepherds He calls them to be the same way and He threatens them with punishment and woes if they depart from that. So coming back to our initial thought, our Old Testament text began with the words, Woe to the shepherds who destroy and scatter the sheep of my pasture, declares Yahweh.

Therefore thus says Yahweh, the God of Israel, concerning the shepherds who care for my flock, you've scattered my flock, you've driven them away, you've not attended to them. Behold, I will attend to you for your evil deeds, declares Yahweh.

So bring words for those who abuse Christ's sheep, who care for and feed only themselves. Very powerful words indeed. Is it any wonder that pastors have a stricter judgment? Then He says this, but then I will gather the remnant of my flock out of all the countries where I have driven them and I will bring them back to their fold.

They shall be fruitful, they will multiply. I will set shepherds over them who will care for them and they shall fear no more nor be dismayed, neither shall any be missing, declares Yahweh. Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will raise up for David a righteous branch and he shall reign as king and he will deal wisely, he shall execute justice and righteousness in the land.

In his days Judah will be saved and Israel will dwell securely. And this is the name by which he will be called, Yahweh is our righteousness. I kind of like to think of it this way, if we're putting it in the metaphor of sheepy terms, I mean sheep herding and things like this, well what do shepherds do with sheep?

I mean, there's a cash crop there just growing on the outside of them. So every year you've got to shave them down, you've got to fleece those sheep and sell the wool and, you know, some of them they need to, well, be barbecued and eaten for things like that.

That's generally how it goes. But Jesus, our good shepherd doesn't fleece us or barbecue us and for this I'm very thankful. In fact, it's quite the opposite. Jesus is the only shepherd who doesn't fleece his sheep, instead he covers them in his own righteousness.

He clothes them rather than they clothing him. And so you'll note this wonderful prophecy in the midst of here God promising shepherd, the son of David who will care for us, he is our righteousness, we are clothed in the brilliant white robe of his sinless perfection.

All of this as a gift. And so when you do the contrast work, the shepherds who feed only themselves and scatter the sheep compared to shepherd Jesus, there is no comparison. And I would even argue any pastor who doesn't exemplify this love, grace, mercy, kindness, patience, and caring that Christ exemplifies when he had compassion on that crowd is not a real shepherd.

Instead it falls under the condemnation of Jeremiah 23. May Christ send us shepherds that are in his image, that will care for his sheep. Those who on the last day, despite the stricter judgment, will hear, well done good and faithful servant, rather than depart from me for I never knew you.

But always and again compare your shepherds to Jesus our good shepherd, the one who laid down his life for his sheep. In the name of Jesus, Amen.

Closing Exhortation and Church Notice

Oslo, Minnesota 567 -44. And again that address is Kungsvinger Lutheran Church 15950 470th Avenue NW Oslo, Minnesota 567 -44. We thank you for your support. All of our teaching messages may be freely distributed as long as you do not edit or change the content of the message.

And again, thank you for listening.